The Social World

Tag: Washington DC

  • Who will blink first to end the government shutdown?

    Who will blink first to end the government shutdown?

    The surprising thing is not that the federal government has shut down. It would have been surprising if it did not. Each side thinks it has the cards and that it has put the other in a bad position. The result is that the budget feud could last for months, ending with a temporary armistice that satisfies no one.

    There is little incentive for either side to shut down the shutdown. Washington Post columnist Paul Kane notes that most Senators have little reason to compromise: “very few senators feel the political pressure that usually comes with calamitous events like a federal agency shutdown. Most sit in safe seats, many with reelection campaigns a distant concern.”

    Democrats are apparently reckoning that the suspension of health tax credits starting in December will cow Republican legislators into capitulating over the first shutdown since 2019. As the financier Steven Rattner points out in the New York Times, the GOP has effectively subverted ObamaCare by repealing the expensive tax breaks that prompted millions to enroll. Now some 20 million Americans face sharply higher premiums. According to Rattner, “Even upper-income Americans who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges will be hurt by the repeal of this tax break. That’s because as coverage gets more expensive, healthier people drop their insurance first, forcing companies to raise premiums on their remaining customers to maintain profitability.” Democrats are wagering that enough Republican moderates will crack to ensure that they can reach a compromise to their liking.

    President Trump and his advisors, however, believe that they can traumatize Democrats. As Trump put it, in a shutdown “we can get rid of a lot of things we don’t want, and they would be Democrat things.” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has been preparing for that. This could be Vought’s finest hour, or, if you’re a fan of big government, the day of the jackal. “There are all manners of authorities to be able to keep this administration’s policy agenda moving forward,” Vought told Fox News, “and that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and we will be looking for opportunities to do that.”

    Vought resembles someone who was crafted in a laboratory by the Claremont Institute to overthrow the New Deal. He’s drafted plans to terminate wide swaths of the so-called administrative state, starting with many of the federal employees who are currently on administrative leave. One such emailed me on Tuesday evening to report that they are “hearing that the Office of Personnel and Management has orders to start jettisoning the Ballastexistenzen, or ballast existences, at midnight” – a sardonic reference to the Nazi propaganda term for those deemed unfit, undesirable and unnecessary.

    The problems with the calculations of the Democrats might turn out to be twofold. The first is that Trump and his coterie exhibit little desire to keep the federal government humming. The reverse may be the case. Like a Romanov emperor, Trump wants to rule by ukase. If there are fewer federal employees around to obstruct his grand plans, so much the better. All Trump requires, so the thinking goes, is a functioning military and ICE. The rest can be cobbled together.

    The second problem that could confound Democrats is the question of whether they really can remain united as they are called upon cast vote after vote to on Republican legislation to reopen government, or whether they are the ones who will crack, as they face calls to stop behaving like an obstructionist faction. Already three members of the Democratic caucus voted for the Republican plan on Tuesday night – Senators John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto and Angus King. Fetterman observed that a shutdown would be “the ideal for Project 2025”.

    Others remain undaunted. “They want us to blink first,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on MSNBC. “We have to be the consequence.” No one should underestimate how consequential the shutdown may prove for Trump and his foes alike.

  • Scott Bessent, future UFC fighter?

    Scott Bessent, future UFC fighter?

    Plans have begun on constructing the Octagon on the White House lawn for a UFC fight to commemorate what President Trump is now calling the “Super Centennial,” the US’s 250th birthday next year. And it looks like we might have an undercard ready to go involving the Treasury Secretary.

    Last week, according to Politico, Scott Bessent got into it with top housing finance official Bill Pulte at a private dinner at Executive Branch, an “ultra-exclusive created by and for Trump world’s uberrich.” Cockburn didn’t receive an invite to this birthday party for podcaster Chamath Palihapitiya, even though he and Chamath go way back.

    In any case, Bessent had apparently heard that Pulte was badmouthing him to Trump behind his back, and said, “Why the fuck are you talking to the President about me? Fuck you. I’m gonna punch you in your fucking face.”

    Whoa whoa whoa, said club owner Omeed Malik, but Bessent insisted that Malik throw out Pulte on his rear.

    “It’s either me or him,” Bessent said to Malik. “You tell me who’s getting the fuck out of here.”

    “Or,” he added, “we could go outside.”

    “To do what?” asked Pulte. “To talk?”

    “No,” Bessent replied. “I’m going to fucking beat your ass.”

    As it turned out, no billionaire or millionaire beat anyone else’s ass that night, and the “bonkers” and “unhinged” incident ended “without further incident.”

    Cockburn has long been a consumer of American political history and enjoys most of all the stories of people beating each other with canes on the floor of the Senate. However, this takes Team of Rivals to a new level. Bessent has been pugilistic with his words in other recent moments as well, getting into it with Elon Musk in the White House over who should be the acting IRS commissioner.

    The Treasury Secretary has clear alpha-male anger issues, which is why he belongs in the Octagon. Before Brock Lesnar or whoever takes to the canvas, let’s have Bessent fight a deputy undersecretary of something or other. He can get it out of his system and then get back to his regularly scheduled program of cryptocurrency shilling and tariff apologia.

    Then again, maybe violence isn’t the solution to all our problems. President Trump made a big show today about rooting out “anti-religious propaganda” in schools and donating his family Bible to a Bible Museum. But the Bible doesn’t teach you to threaten to “fucking beat the ass” of political rivals. A Biblical ass is something for a pregnant virgin to ride on to the manger.

    Does the Trump family Bible say anything about turning the other cheek or loving thy neighbor? “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all,” the Good Book says. Unless some bastard is talking about you behind your back to the President. Them’s fighting words.

  • Muriel Bowser’s praise for Donald Trump

    Muriel Bowser’s praise for Donald Trump

    Mayor Muriel Bowser has found herself in the middle of a political tightrope – and it’s one that many Democrats may soon have to walk. In response to rising crime and public unease, the Washington, DC Mayor acknowledged something few in her party dare to admit: that Donald Trump’s federal “surge” of law enforcement officers actually made the city safer.

    “This federal surge has had a significant impact on crime in Washington, DC, and we greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said at a press conference yesterday.

    That single sentence captures the dilemma of the modern Democratic party. At a time when progressive leaders downplay crime concerns as either exaggerated or rooted in right-wing fear-mongering, Bowser’s comments cut against the grain. She gave credit where it was due – to Trump – while at the same time rejecting his proposal to send in the National Guard. It’s an approach that shows both independence and restraint, and it highlights the broader challenge facing Democrats: how to be tough enough on crime to reassure the public without conceding the narrative to their opponents.

    The political class often gets stuck in a numbers game. In recent years, experts have pointed out that violent crime in DC has ebbed and flowed but is still lower than its early-1990s peak. Statistically, they’re right. But residents don’t live by long-term averages; they live by what they see on their block. In 2015, homicides in DC spiked by more than 50 percent compared to the year before. Robberies and assaults were also on the rise. You didn’t have to be a policy wonk to notice that the streets felt less safe.

    Bowser recognized that reality. Her acknowledgment that the federal surge “had a significant impact” shows she understands that people want to feel safe – when they walk home from the Metro, when their kids play outside, when they close up shop at night. Leaders who dismiss those fears as paranoia are telling voters, in effect, not to trust their own eyes. That is a losing strategy.

    At the same time, Bowser resisted Trump’s more heavy-handed solution: sending in the National Guard. On this point, she was absolutely right. Crime prevention is fundamentally a local responsibility. Residents expect their city officials and police department to take the lead, not the Pentagon. While a temporary boost from federal officers can help, relying on military deployment to patrol American streets sets a dangerous precedent. Conservatives, too, should be wary of normalizing that kind of federal overreach.

    Bowser’s willingness to draw a line here is noteworthy. She didn’t fall into the trap of reflexive partisanship – she praised what worked, rejected what didn’t and staked out a nuanced position. That’s leadership, whether you agree with her politics or not.

    Still, Bowser’s balancing act comes with risks. If residents continue to feel unsafe, they will credit Trump’s surge, not the mayor’s steady hand. Political perception mirrors public perception: voters reward whoever they believe made them safer, whether or not the data backs it up.

    That means Bowser could find herself outflanked from both sides. Progressives may accuse her of caving to Trump, while conservatives will argue she only validated what they’ve been saying all along. But if she manages to keep crime under control without ceding local authority, she may point the way forward for Democrats in other cities who face the same dilemma.

    The broader lesson is this: Democrats cannot afford to dismiss crime concerns as a manufactured talking point. Ordinary people don’t experience crime as an abstraction; they experience it as a daily reality that shapes their neighborhoods and their choices. If voters perceive that their leaders aren’t listening, they will turn to anyone who promises action – even if it’s a president they otherwise distrust.

    Bowser deserves credit for not joining the reflexive chorus of her party that insists crime concerns are invented. She recognized both the value of additional officers and the danger of military overreach. In doing so, she threaded a needle that her fellow Democrats may eventually need to follow.

  • FIFA president joins Trump for Oval Office kickabout

    Washington, DC

    President Trump had balls on the brain on Friday. At an unannounced stop at the People’s Museum by the White House – where he was checking out the newly refurbished gift shop –  he laid down the gauntlet to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. “I think the mayor has to get on the ball, because we have a situation, and she’s a nice woman, but I tell you what she’s got to get on the ball,” the President told the press. “I don’t want to see phony numbers.” We are now in the 12th day of Trump’s federal takeover of law and order in the capital. In that time, 719 arrests have been made, 36 of them illegal aliens, according to the White House.

    Next, the President headed over to the Kennedy Center to inspect the ongoing reconstruction efforts. Today’s major announcement was that the draw for the FIFA World Cup would take place there in December. FIFA president Gianni Infantino flew over from Europe for the “announcement” that took place in the Oval Office in the early afternoon. Also present behind the Resolute Desk: Vice President J.D. Vance, World Cup Task Force chief Andrew Giuliani, FIFA senior advisor Carlos Cordeiro and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Special government employee Corey Lewandowski was toward the back of the room with other White House officials.

    Infantino presented the President with a novelty-sized ticket to the World Cup Final. He brought the World Cup with him from FIFA HQ, giving it to Trump to hold after pointing out that the last person to lift it was Argentina and Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi. “Since you are a winner, of course you can touch it,” Infantino said, easily falling into the role of obsequious medieval courtier. “Can I keep it?” Trump asked. He may have been joking – but the original Club World Cup trophy that he presented to Chelsea FC on Infantino’s last visit still sits behind him. 

    The entire Oval Office is very, very gold: the President has taken a number of portraits of past presidents out of storage, hanging them in the office with gold-effect frames. It’s safe to assume that his White House ballroom, when completed, will have a similarly Uday Hussein aesthetic.

    Trump remained focused on his law-and-order efforts. “We haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do if we have to,” he told the press pool in the Oval. “And after we do this, we’ll go to another location and we’ll make it safe also… Chicago is a mess. And we’ll straighten that one out probably next.” No word yet on his plans to beatify the area around New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup Final will take place 11 months from now.

    “Do you think America will win?” I asked the President at the end of the session. “I don’t know,” he replied, smirking. “I watch some of those teams go, they go down that field, I don’t know…”

    “Let me ask you,” Trump said, turning to Infantino. “What chance does America have of winning?”

    “Well the home team always has a good chance to win,” the FIFA president replied.

    “See? He’s a good diplomat,” joked Trump. How good, exactly, we shall see: Trump also mentioned how President Putin was hoping to attend the 2026 World Cup. Russia has been suspended from competition since it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Perhaps a lifting of that ban could prove to be a pot-sweetener in their much-vaunted peace negotiations in the weeks ahead.

  • The joy of Giorgia Meloni

    The joy of Giorgia Meloni

    There are not, as far as I know, any Italian top-flight poker players. Italians are hardly renowned for their ability to suppress their facial expressions or conceal what they’re really thinking. In this regard they are unusually well-represented by their Premier, Giorgia Meloni.

    Upon becoming Italy’s Prime Minister in 2022, Ms Meloni was written off by the bien-pensant Anglophone press as a far-right extremist, destined for her rag tag coalition to crash like so many Italian governments before. Contra this narrative, she took her seat beside President Trump at the leaders’ round table in Washington DC yesterday. He even complimented her longevity in a famously unstable political climate: “You’ve been there for a long period of time relative to others. They don’t last very long; you’ve lasted a long time. You’re going to be there a long time.”

    Such prominence for an Italian leader would have been unthinkable a little while ago. Italy’s schizophrenic political culture and its resolute failure to commit to NATO defense spending goals had made it easy for the France-German alliance to usher the Italians into a side room alongside the Spanish, Greeks and other “full partners” in the European enterprise.

    Not so now. Meloni is not only making positive moves on defense and standing firm on the issue of Ukraine (earning her the ire of the actual Italian far right), but she is also overseeing one of Europe’s only successful economies. She is seen by many as a Trump whisperer, able to wrap the notoriously erratic and bizarre President around her finger.

    Ms Meloni’s facial expressions at the Washington summit were a delight. Whether it was the eye roll during the pompous, drawn-out remarks of the German chancellor or her perma-scowl and crossed arms in the Oval Office, she has a remarkable ability to steal the show – and make her feelings abundantly clear – even in a room that contains more than its fair share of divas.

    Her visible hatred of Emmanuel Macron is often conveyed through withering stares; she looks at the French President as if he’s something that she has just stepped in on the notoriously unclean pavements of Rome.

    One person, by contrast, who couldn’t even make his words convey meaning, was the British Prime Minister. Sir Keir’s turn came on the round table and he duly filled his designated two minutes with waffle. The observation that “this conflict has gone on for three and a bit years” was one of his more profound contributions. During his speech, Ms Meloni flicked her hair, pursed her lips and explained considerably more than Sir Keir ever could.

  • Sandwich arrest reveals lawless Justice Department

    Sandwich arrest reveals lawless Justice Department

    It’s one thing to hear about political radicals clashing with federal officers in the streets. It’s another thing entirely when one of those radicals is a Department of Justice employee.

    On August 10, in Washington, DC, 37-year-old Sean Charles Dunn – then working in the DoJ’s Criminal Division – hurled a Subway sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer during President Trump’s controversial federal crime crackdown in the city. It wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. Video shows Dunn yelling profanity-laced insults – “f– you! … I don’t want you in my city!”– before throwing the sandwich and running. When caught, Dunn admitted it outright: “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”

    The aftermath was swift. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his immediate firing. US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro filed felony charges for assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. Bondi didn’t mince words: “If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you. Not only is he fired, he’s been charged with a felony.”

    Here’s the part that should make every law-abiding American pause: this wasn’t just a rowdy college protester or a fringe activist. This was someone who worked inside the very department tasked with upholding the rule of law.

    When you sign on to serve in law enforcement – or even in its administrative ranks – you are pledging to respect the work of officers, even when you don’t like the political decisions guiding them. That doesn’t mean blind loyalty. It does mean you understand that the men and women in uniform are not your personal punching bags for political grievances.

    What’s most alarming is that Dunn’s outburst wasn’t just a lapse in judgment – it was a glimpse into how normalized political violence has become in certain quarters of the left. The progressive defense of “punch a Nazi” rhetoric, the romanticizing of “direct action,” the social media clout economy that rewards confrontation – all of it has made some people genuinely believe that expressing dissent through physical aggression is noble.

    It’s not.

    There are plenty of valid criticisms of Trump’s DC crackdown. You can argue, as many conservatives have, that deploying federal agents in local jurisdictions without consent is a serious violation of states’ rights and local governance. You can oppose the policy without ever laying a hand – or a sandwich – on the officers tasked with carrying it out. Those officers didn’t set the policy. They are doing their jobs.

    The problem here isn’t just Dunn’s personal anger – it’s the set of political values that make him think assault is a legitimate response to disagreement. When you believe that your cause is so righteous that the rules don’t apply to you, you’ve already abandoned the principles of a free society.

    Political violence doesn’t have to involve Molotov cocktails or deadly weapons. It can be a brick through a campaign office window, an activist spitting on a political opponent, or yes—a sandwich thrown at a federal agent. It’s all the same root: contempt for lawful, peaceful disagreement.

    The left loves to paint conservatives as the real threat to political stability – January 6, they remind us, is proof that right-wing political violence is the danger of our time. But you won’t hear them talk about their own side’s flirtations with it. From Antifa riots to congressional Democrats refusing to condemn attacks on pro-life centers, the double standard is glaring.

    If Dunn’s victim had been a progressive protester and Dunn a MAGA-hat-wearing Trump appointee, the media would be calling this an act of fascist intimidation. Instead, it’s treated as an oddball “sandwich story” with a bit of late-night comedy potential.

    But there’s nothing funny about it. It’s a reminder that the institutions we’re supposed to trust to uphold the law are not immune from harboring people who openly disrespect it. It’s a reminder that political tribalism can eat away at basic civic decency. And it’s a reminder that, increasingly, the left’s answer to disagreement isn’t persuasion – it’s escalation.

    Conservatives should be consistent here. We can criticize federal overreach while still defending the dignity of the people carrying out lawful orders. We can condemn both January 6 rioters and DoJ sandwich-throwers without hypocrisy, because our standard isn’t “my side, right or wrong.” It’s the rule of law.

    Dunn’s case will move through the courts. His career in government is over. But the deeper issue – an emerging culture where some Americans think they have moral permission to attack those they disagree with – is far from resolved.

    We have to start calling it out, no matter which political jersey the offender wears. Because if you’re willing to assault “the other side” today, you’re one step away from justifying something far worse tomorrow.

    It’s OK not to agree with what’s going on in your city. It’s OK to protest, to organize, to speak your mind. That’s America. But when you cross the line into physical confrontation, you’re not defending democracy – you’re corroding it. And if you work for the Department of Justice, you should know that better than anyone.

  • Trump is liberating the Smithsonians from ‘Woke’

    Trump is liberating the Smithsonians from ‘Woke’

    Back in March, Donald Trump issued an executive order called “Restoring Truth And Sanity To American History.” Its aim was to counter the “revisionist movement” in our cultural institutions that sought “to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”  

    Exhibit number one was the Smithsonian Institution, the sprawling agglomeration of museums, libraries, historical landmarks and assorted educational centers in and around Washington DC with affiliate institutions in 47 states. 

    Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian was the culmination of an earlier movement, supported by such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams, to “promote science and the useful arts.” 

    The institution is named for the British chemist James Smithson, whose fortune was bequeathed to the United States in order “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men. Back then money made a physical impression. President Andrew Jackson deputed the diplomat Richard Rush to retrieve the pelf, which he did in 1838: 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns, worth about $500,000 at the time – $15 million today.

    Back then the phrase “useful knowledge” was touted everything. That’s what the Smithsonian was created to promote. That was then. “In recent years,” as Trump notes, the Smithsonian has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” 

    Trump mentions an exhibition called The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture which purports to show how “societies including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” What it really does is undermine any sense of patriotism and shared American identity.  

    Executive orders are one thing. Enacting or enforcing them is something else. Donald Trump understands this. Thus it is that his order to abolish the racist practice of the “diversity, equity and inclusion” industry was followed up by fines of hundreds of millions at Columbia, Harvard and many other institutions that continued the practice overtly or by stealth in defiance of the law. 

    And thus it is that Trump’s order to restore “truth and sanity” to the institutions charged with preserving and disseminating American history has just been given teeth. Yesterday, Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, received a letter whose subject line reads “Internal Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions and Materials.” Signed by Lindsey Halligan, Special Assistant to the President, Vince Haley, Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the letter announces a “comprehensive internal review” of the Smithsonian, its exhibitions and curatorial procedures. “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” 

    How will that happen? Well, the administration will review “exhibition text, wall didactics, websites, educational materials, and digital and social media content to assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.” It will interview curatorial staff “to better understand the selection process, exhibition approval workflows, and any frameworks currently guiding exhibition content.” One major focus will be on how the Smithsonian plans to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary next year. Out will go the divisive anti-American racialist rhetoric that has disfigured so much official cultural patronage in recent years. In will come affirmative exhibitions that acknowledge America’s many achievements and that emphasize the traditions and historical realities that unite us.

    What is happening, and what is going to happen, at the Smithsonian museums may seem like a footnote to the larger Trump agenda of “Making America Great Again.” In fact, it stands at the center of that project. Donald Trump understands something that the left has grasped at least since the 1960s but that conservatives have grasped dimly if at all. If you want to restore society, you must commandeer the institutions that represent elite culture. Over the last several decades, those institutions have gradually become captive of a woke ideology that denigrates America while simultaneously celebrating the entire radical menu of racialist redress, sexual exoticism and political intransigence.  

    Back in January, I wrote an column claiming that Donald Trump was “a great man of history.” That occasioned a fair amount of ridicule. But as the months pass and Trump moves from one triumph to the next, doing beneficent things that no previous president would have thought possible, my description seems more and more apt. Trump is not only making Americans safer and more prosperous. He is also moving on several fronts to give them back their cultural and educational institutions. His actions at the Smithsonian are the tip of that liberating spear.

  • Is Trump DC’s Batman?

    Is Trump DC’s Batman?

    What is Washington to make of the President’s efforts to “make DC safe again?” If you’re only capable of measuring Trump’s actions by how authoritarian they appear, then, sure, his declaration of a state of emergency, seizure of control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilization of the National Guard must seem scary. Cockburn empathizes with the small number of DC residents – and larger cohort in other cities and around the world – who see Trump’s use of the powers granted him by the Home Rule Act as concerning. On his Monday evening constitutional around Northwest DC, Cockburn saw a number of arrests taking place, more MPD cars on the street than usual and heard a chorus of sirens cascading into the night.

    Yet Cockburn has lived in this city a while – and therefore knows that in many neighborhoods, the fear of creeping fascism is vastly offset by the sense of lawlessness that has prevailed in the district since the pandemic. Big-brained, extremely serious pundits such as MSNBC justice correspondent Ken Dilanian spent yesterday bleating that “total violent crime” is “down 35 percent from 2023.” You might think that serving as a cable news network’s justice correspondent would require you to be able to read graphs – and acknowledge just how much higher violent crime was in 2023 compared to four years earlier, and how DC was a national outlier that year. Perhaps Ken should report to his colleague Steve Kornacki’s whiteboard for some remedial classes.

    Over on CNN, the tenor was sober-minded, data-oriented and measured. “Donald Trump makes himself Batman and the nation’s capital Gotham City,” said DMV native Abby Phillip on her primetime show. Does that make Pete Hegseth Commissioner Gordon and Judge Jeanine Two-Face? There was a minor scuffle on Phillip’s show in her absence last Wednesday, when conservative firebrand Scott Jennings said, “I just know that when we go to CNN in Washington and do a show, they send guards out with us to walk us out 200 feet to the street.” Other guests challenged his claim – but a mole tells Cockburn that CNN changed its security protocol for guests a while back, with a security guard escorting guests to their Ubers for safety reasons.

    Elsewhere in the city, the war of anecdotes rages on. “Hey DC, let’s push back against the negative narrative about our city,” posted the ironically named DC meme account Washingtonian Problems on X. “Share why you love our beautiful home and help show the world the real DC.” The responses are… probably not what they were hoping for:

    “I got mugged last year by a group of teenagers who should’ve been in school while walking back from donating a trunk of school supplies to that same school.”

    “I watched a gang of kids push a cyclist into traffic on 14th St and waited on hold with 911 for 140 seconds until they chased me away.”

    “I moved from my previous apartment in NoMa after four people were shot less than a block away, outside King Street Oyster in 2024. The police blamed the restaurant for failing to lock-up their patio at night, saying it ‘contributed to the group establishing themselves and continue to grow, leading to the gun violence that resulted in four people being shot.’ DC chief of police Pamela Smith ordered the restaurant to close for four days after violating a 2019 ‘security agreement.’ Silent killers: open patios.”

    This morning Cockburn spotted a couple of women around his age, one of them wearing a “the real criminal is in the White House” T-shirt. This is another line that’s been trotted out: how can Trump be a “law-and-order” leader when he incited January 6? Cockburn is no fan of disorder in the district – including what unfolded at the Capitol in 2021 – but he is at pains to point out that hundreds of the attempted insurrectionists, violent and not, faced legal consequences for their actions that day. Several were in jail for three or so years – and the J6 cases tied up the DC courts for months. That’s more than can be said for the juvenile perpetrators of the post-Covid violent crime spike, most of whom got away with a slap on the wrist.

    For the people solely outraged at Trump’s “overreach” this week, Cockburn has to wonder: where was your anger for the many, many people who could have acted before him on DC crime and did next to nothing? For the DC Council, Mayor, police chiefs, judges, housing authorities, the previous attorney general, the previous president… the list goes on.

    On our radar

    LET’S GET IT ON In celebration of the nation turning 250, Dana White confirmed there will likely be a UFC match on the White House lawn. “Fighters will be warming up in the White House. It’s incredible,” White told the Wall Street Journal.

    BOT WARS After alleging that Apple gives ChatGPT preferential placement over xAI in the App Store, Elon Musk announced he will sue for “antitrust violations.”

    NEW TRUMP TRIAL A federal court began hearing testimony yesterday to determine if President Trump deployed the National Guard illegally to squash June’s California riots. Trump appears unconcerned, as he deployed the National Guard the same day in DC.

    The Picture of Barack Hussein Obama

    Another day, another Donald Trump redecorating drama. This week’s outrage comes after a report emerged that Trump has moved portraits of three former presidents – Barack Obama and George Bush Sr. and Jr. – out of view to a “hidden stairwell” where tourists visiting the White House can’t see them. However, they definitely can see a painted rendition of Trump’s “Fight” moment, which has hung in the foyer of the White House since April.

    Giant flags, a new ballroom, endless harrumphing from the opposing side. Is this the White House or an episode of Love It or List It? Cockburn thinks Trump should just keep pushing the boundaries. Take down Washington and Lincoln’s portraits and replace them with a meme painting of a muscular Trump wielding a machine gun and flying bareback on an eagle. Let the man posterize himself. He’s the ultimate man of the people after all, and this is the People’s House.

    Giacomo Kimmel in Diretta!

    On his ex-girlfriend Sarah Silverman’s podcast last week, Jimmy Kimmel announced he has procured Italian citizenship and is considering an exodus because of Trump. Alluding to ICE and deportations, Kimmel said, “I feel like it’s worse than probably even he [Trump] would like it to be.” Kimmel would be following fellow “national treasures” Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres across the Atlantic if he decides to make the switch.

    Cockburn was also amused as the talk-show host got sentimental. “Remember when we almost got arrested at the New York airport for making out in the airport?” Then Silverman clapped her hands to her mouth and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh that was very romantic.” Kimmel added, “Yeah, I was thinking about that on the way over here.”

    Subscribe to Cockburn’s Diary on Substack to get it in your inbox on Tuesdays and Fridays.

  • My brush with death in DC

    My brush with death in DC

    The last thing I heard before my ears started ringing was my left turn signal clicking.

    I was stopped at a red light on a Saturday afternoon, waiting to glide into my parking lot near the Waterfront Metro stop in Washington, DC when a loud crack suddenly deafened me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bullet-sized wound in my windshield. 

    It wasn’t a windy day, and no cars had been passing by to kick a loose stone up at my beloved Camry, so it only took me only a half-second to realize what had happened. When the fight or flight kicked in, I briefly (and foolishly) fled the vehicle before diving back in to take a left on red. 

    The two Metropolitan Police Department officers my 911 call summoned didn’t show up until a half-hour later, even though the nearest station was only a two-minute walk away. Gesturing toward my broken windshield, I asked them for confirmation of what I already knew had happened. Yes, my car had probably been shot with me in it, they agreed before informing me that all they could do was record the incident. 

    If I wanted, they said, I could ask nearby apartment buildings and businesses for security footage and report back to them. And then they were off; my ears were still ringing.

    That was only the most notable of my many experiences with the post-Covid crime wave that made DC such an unsettling place to live during my two years in the district. There was also the time a man on a motorcycle swerved onto the sidewalk to stare me down as my fiancée hid behind me; the time her cousin was mugged; and the time my friend from college was killed in a hit-and-run. On our way home from the grocery store one afternoon, we observed a high school boy beating up a girl roughly his age as their presumed classmates looked on. I called the police and began loudly describing the situation as I approached the culprit and victim, causing all involved to flee. I sat outside for over an hour waiting for the cops to show. They never did. 

    On Monday morning, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would be taking control of MPD, as well as deploying the National Guard inside of the district. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs, and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” asserted Trump. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”

    For those of us who have lived that reality, it was like watching the sun rise for the first time after a half-decade of darkness.

    Trump’s critics have portrayed his decision to take action in DC as a thinly-justified power grab. After only a little reflection, though, it’s hard to believe it took this long for a president to do something, anything, about its embarrassing state.

    “But the murder and violent crime rates are down!” wailed America’s shameless progressive establishment on Monday. Yes, from the historic highs they reached in 2023. It’s only August and the district – which has a population of only a little over 700,000 –  has already seen 189 carjackings, 99 homicides, and 2,909 motor vehicle thefts this year. Last year, it had one of the highest murder rates of any major American city. Early Monday evening, just a few hours after Trump’s press conference, a man was shot and killed around the affluent Logan Circle neighborhood. During a visit back to the city last year, I walked to our favorite sushi restaurant near my fiancée’s old apartment to make it for happy hour. On the way back, I found a street I had used only an hour earlier had been shut down after a gunfight. Try – if you’re brave enough – walking around DC for a few hours and then uttering the words “this a safe, clean and pleasant place to live” without laughing or crying. You’d be lucky if you made it without coming across a crime scene – or becoming a crime statistic.

    And as if the “but crime rates are down” argument couldn’t get any more pathetic, there is a scandal brewing over the books being cooked by high-ranking city police officials to downplay the ongoing crisis.

    Washington, DC is a city with endless potential and should be a point of pride for all Americans. It is a cultural melting pot filled with fantastic restaurants, moving monuments and stunning museums. It’s also the political center of not just the country, but the world. Yet for years now, it has been the modern model of corrupt, complacent governance – a national embarrassment that no one seemed to care enough about to try to fix.

    Should Trump have activated the National Guard? Could he have possibly used a lighter touch? Such questions pale in importance compared to this one: did something need to be done in the federal district to carry out government’s most basic mandate, the protection of its citizens?

    The President answered, “Yes” yesterday. God bless him for it. 

  • Why Trump is right to take over DC

    Why Trump is right to take over DC

    Donald Trump‘s press conference announcing a federal takeover of Washington, DC‘s police force was packed to the gills with White House reporters – many of whom live in DC and the surrounding area, and are more than familiar with the degradation of law and order in the region. But just because they know it’s bad doesn’t mean they want to give Trump any credit for trying to clean up the city – in fact, they’re likely to attack the move from both sides.

    The ramifications of Trump’s takeover, under Section 740‘s emergency rule, will have undetermined ripple effects in the capital city, but the initial reaction to it illustrates the difficult position in which it puts the president’s critics. Arguments from commentators on CNN and MSNBC immediately turned to official statistics, which show declines in violent crime in the past year and a half. The only problem? A DC police commander has already been suspended for cooking the books on those numbers, a practice that the DC police union claims is commonplace.

    “When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense,” Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton said. “So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification.”

    Ever since the violent summer of George Floyd, Washington has struggled to achieve the same return to normalcy that has been the case in other major cities. A major driver is the lack of sufficient police staffing, with the Metro Police Department running almost a thousand officers short of needed levels. Carjackings and vehicle theft are three times the national average, and the homicide rate is six times that of New York City. The poor response times and lack of an ability to disburse gang activity is taken for granted by residents, with restaurant closures and other venues seeing less foot traffic because of the crime concerns.

    “Over the last two years, DC has experienced a 52 percent drop in violent crime and is now at a 30-year low,” tweeted Councilman Charles Allen of the DC Council. “While any crime is one too many, every local leader in DC is committed to the work and progress of safer communities and preventing violence.” These words are particularly rich coming from Allen, who faced a recall campaign after being the council’s leading voice on reducing the number of MPD officers and pushing for slack sentencing guidelines for teenage perps.

    The overall result of Trump’s move in media terms will be to make national figures finally pay attention to how bad things are in DC, if only to deny they justify his actions – but they’ll also be set to use any criminal activity that does happen going forward to argue that the administration methods are ineffective. But this is a sideshow: the real question is how DC’s citizens feel about what comes next, and whether it makes DC feel safe again. As a local who hasn’t been willing to risk taking my children into the city late in the day, I can hope that changes soon.